Chapter 117: A New Lesson
"Hey kid, how's it going?" Nekros said as he shifted his large sword onto his shoulder.
The Loki Familia looked between each other nervously, still pointing some of their weapons at the stranger. The man's presence filled their senses with terrible power, even as his smile shone as bright as the sun. Even if every instinct in their bodies were screaming at them to not do anything foolish, one cannot underestimate the bond of a good Familia. They were ready to defend Lyze at any moment.
As for the boy himself, Lyze could not do anything but look up at a person he both hated and admired with quite the confusion written all over his face. Nekros had been insistent that he would not come down to this realm to interfere in any way besides Lyze's dreams. So what had changed?
"I'd say it was going well...until you showed up that is." Lyze said as he stood up shakily, still bleeding and throbbing from the multiple injuries and wounds all over his body. "What are you doing down here of all places? If I remember correctly, your kind are not supposed to come down here."
"Don't lump me in with the stooges." Nekros huffed as he looked away. "And besides, I'm not here 'all the way' if you catch my drift."
"...I see." Lyze nodded. "So this is just a fragment."
"But of course. It is only as much as this plane can hold before it just crumbles." Nekros said before he looked around at the Loki Familia. "Your friends here are quite stiff reception. Mind placating them a little more? That kind of state won't be helpful against monsters at all...or their nerves."
Lyze looked at Finn pleadingly, try to get a message across. Finn's eyes flicked between both the boy and his old master before he lifted his spear. Following their captain's prompt, the Loki Familia removed their own weapons and stood back. However only one person didn't seem so convinced.
In stark contrast, Riveria stepped forwards with her staff levelled at the man's face, a dangerously sharp look in her eye as her pupils practically glinted with fury and threatening demeanour.
"Well there are black sheep everywhere." Nekros sighed before he looked at the elf. "Can I help you?"
"I don't know who you are..." Riveria said in an icy voice that froze the blood of everybody around. Each and everyone of them instinctively (and wisely) took a step back so as not be in the way of what wrath Riveria was feeling. "...but I know WHAT you've done."
Nekros raised a brow at her as he smiled cheerfully.
"Oh? And do enlighten me as to what sin I committed."
"His torso is bare." Riveria pointed at Lyze. "The evidence is all there...all that is necessary to hold you accountable."
Something that people had wondered for a long time was how Lyze got all of his scars. They were so numerous and some looked to be fatal even, that his fellow adventurers often wondered what it was that made those scars. Judging by the way the exiled elf princess was standing her ground against this man, they could only assume him to be responsible.
And they would be partially correct.
"So?" Nekros shrugged his shoulders. "He was born with great power. He had to be disciplined so that he would how to wield it properly and responsibly. Out of a helpless, dirty little street rat, I made the mightiest prodigy to ever walk the earth. Are you really going to hold me accountable for that?"
"Discipline is one thing." Riveria said. "Outright abuse is another."
Nekros narrowed his eyes and put down his weapon. Slowly he walked up to her and put his mouth by her ear.
"Are YOU going to lecture me about THAT?" He whispered. "You, who tied an emotionally broken and helpless orphan girl to an adamantite block and threw her into a pool under the guise of a swimming lesson when in actuality, you were 'punishing' her for calling you old?"
Riveria's mouth fell open a little and she stared at the man with wide eyes.
"H-how-"
"Lyze is not the only one who knows things that he shouldn't." The transcendent being said to her. "Where do you think he gets it from?"
...
"Putting all of that aside." Lyze said as he walked up to the pair and made point of pushing Riveria aside lightly to break up this little confrontation. "You still haven't answered me. Why are you here? You said that you were done with me."
"Well, that was the plan." Nekros said as he removed his face from beside Riveria's and looked down at his disciple. "But a few things have changed since then. It would seem that there is something that I still have yet to teach you."
"That being?" Lyze put his hands on his hips.
"We'll come to that later." Nekros said as he lifted his sword. The Loki Familia tensed as it looked like he was about to attack with it, but Lyze just stood calmly and watched as Nekros sheathed the thing behind his back. "First, how about we administer aid to all of your friends who are so desperately in need." Nekros gestured to the Loki Familia.
"They have potions and medical supplies." Lyze said. "Why are you staving off the topic?"
"Why are you being stingy with your powers?" Nekros asked. "Take your winged form, and heal everyone here instead of making them expend precious resources. They will need them for the harsher battles ahead where you might not be able to reach them in time. Common sense, no?"
"...You're every bit annoying as you always were." Lyze grit his teeth. "It was all fine until I had to see your stupid face."
"Well maybe if you'd just done as I told you..." Nekros leaned towards Lyze's face and flicked his forehead harshly, making the boy yelp and furiously rub his face as he grimaced in pain. "...then I wouldn't be here to wrong your errors or to guide you again in this new path you've made for yourself. Now I'm not saying that I'm unhappy with what you've done. As a matter of fact I would be a little disheartened if you'd followed EVERYTHING I told you to do. But circumstance forces me to come down here and show you the correct way of doing this."
"I wasn't aware I'd been doing anything wrong." Lyze said. "You told me not to do it because it would be at the cost of my safety. You didn't say to not use a method where my safety was guaranteed at all."
"Perhaps, but there are consequences." Nekros said seriously. "And they don't necessarily have to come from me. But more on that later. For now, go help your friends."
Lyze snorted defiantly before a cocoon of light surrounded him and his hair turned white. Lyze then walked up to Aki who was the nearest to him and had quite a few injuries herself.
"No wings ~nyah?" She asked with an uncharacteristic mewl.
"Not this time." Lyze said. "Just because I'm in this form, it doesn't mean my wings are always out."
"Can't deny you've been flexing with them the whole time though, right?" Nekros folded his arms and smiled knowingly.
"Whatever." Lyze shook his head as golden magic spewed from his hands and wounds instantly began closing.
...
"So that's the 'master' Lyze was always on about." Gareth said as he leaned towards the rest of the executives with his hands on top of the blades of his axe. "He looks quite young, doesn't he?"
"Yes." Noir said as he regarded the newcomer with great suspicion, his fingers dancing over the hilt of his sword. "But something about this presence of his is...off."
"What do you mean?" Bara asked. "It's perfectly fine to me."
"I think I get what he's saying." Finn said. "...I could almost swear that this is the kind of feeling you get whenever you're around the gods. They have a certain aura to them...but this guy is different. He doesn't feel like a god nor a mortal, just...empty?"
"I'm sorry but this just confuses me." Dain said. "What are you trying to say here?"
"I'm saying that he has no presence." Finn said. "But it's that lack of aura, lack of sensation that actually becomes his presence itself...like the feeling that you're about to be devoured whole."
"He's definitely powerful...a lot more than we are." Gareth said. "Did any of you even see him move when he sliced up that snake?"
"I certainly didn't." Finn stated. "What bothers me though is that for someone who made him so miserable, Lyze seems to be treating him very familiarly."
"Well we never did get the story on what went on between them now did we?" Bara said as she put her chin in her hand. "I have to say...he's quite the looker. And he's strong too...maybe all is not lost after all."
"Could you put your head in the game for one second Bara?" Noir face-palmed.
"What? If he was an enemy and someone we should be treating as such, then the kid would be on more alert would he not? I say to just relax while this whole thing moves along."
"You may do that. But I will not forget the way Loki acted when this man came into the subject." Riveria said as she narrowed her eyes at Nekros again. "There is more that is off about him than just his presence. I'm keeping my eyes peeled no matter what you say."
...
Nekros looked at this discussion going on with a secretive side-eye. He chuckled and shook his head while smiling before looking down. At his feet was a little girl with blonde hair and golden eyes, staring up at him in curiosity. An innocent, questioning look burned on her face as she gazed at him with scrutiny.
Nekros smiled and knelt before her, though even in a sitting position he still towered over her small frame.
"What's your name?" He asked with a smile.
Ais stared at at him, her mouth open a little as she tried to figure him out. She then looked away and murmured.
"Ais...Ais Wallenstein."
"Is that so?" Nekros smile widened and he held a hand out to her. "My name is Nekros, miss Ais. You can call me whatever you like."
Ais looked back at him with a small pout.
"Can I call you a meanie then?" She asked.
"What?" Nekros was taken aback, a little shocked.
"Lyze obviously doesn't like you. And he doesn't like people only when they are mean to him." Ais said. "So you must have been a meanie, Mr Meanie."
Nekros stared at her for a few seconds before he broke down laughing, serving to increase her pout even more. He wiped a couple of tears that were slipping out of his eyes before he finally composed himself.
"I forget how children are sometimes." The transcendent entity said before he ruffled her hair. "I was his Master so I had to be mean sometimes in order to turn him into a strong person. And he's strong isn't he?"
"Yes." She murmured again. "Very strong. Are you also very strong?"
"...I guess you could say that." Nekros winked at her. "Very strong. And you'll come to know quite soon, that Lyze is stronger than even he realizes."
---
"Now that we're finally done with that..." Lyze said once the Loki Familia had settled down. Finn decided it was best that perhaps everybody set up camp for a bit so as to regain a little bit of their strength. Everybody had been far too tired to just immediately start marching right away after such a heavy conflict. Lyze in the meantime, once he'd finished healing everybody, went away with his old master to sit somewhere beneath the cliff and converse. "...will you tell me why you're here?"
"I'll tell you why." Nekros said. "Honestly, your growth is amazing. I never expected that you would grow this much in so short an amount of time. Not only that, but you're also a completely different person as well. That said...I'm still quite disappointed in you."
"And why is that?" Lyze asked. "As a level 3, I have the raw power of a level 4, and a level 5 when I'm pushed to the absolute maximum. I have gotten this far in less than a month and a half as well. It took Bell that amount of time to level up from 1 to 2. Where is it that are you disappointed in me for?"
"Because you are still so narrow minded." Nekros said harshly. "I told you to never forget what you are, and that you are better than the rest of these lot and what they have. And yet you still fight by their paradigms!"
"What do you mean?"
"You may have a Falna, but you also have the powers of a Britannian Warrior." Nekros said as he pointed a long finger at Lyze. "You've not been focusing on that paradigm. I said that you were at the level of a Holy Knight, and you have gotten significantly stronger since then. Even Gilthunder would not have been able to take you on easily." Nekros then pointed at the Loki Familia. "Do you think any of these idiots can do what he does?"
"...no." Lyze admitted. "But I'm fighting monsters, not other adventurers. You can't make a comparison like that."
"And he fought Demons." Nekros said. "Do you honestly believe that being almost as as strong as a sealed Meliodas allows you only to kill a measly Barbarian Variant?" Nekros stood up. "You've been allowing Falna to lay out the framework of your growth."
"YOU sent me to this world you prick. If you wanted me to fight by Britannia's standards, why didn't you just send me there?"
"Because there are reasons for that!" Nekros said. "Things that you are not yet ready to conceive, let alone learn about. You have such a marvellous opportunity in your hands and you don't make any use of it. But I digress." Nekros ran a hand through his hair and sighed. "You've chosen a different path than the one I set you. I'll accept that. But I will not let it slide that you squander such an opportunity and that you limit your own growth since you lack practicality. You're so obsessed with creating new powers, you don't give time to what you already have."
"I have been giving time to what I have." Lyze held out a palm and in it, a plume of silver fire emerged. "I've been trying to understand this thing this whole time. And I believe I get it now."
"No you don't." Nekros said. "You should never have had that power to begin with. But what is done is done. I will do my duty as your master, and educate you a little about the nature of your power. But first, a spot of revision. Tell me all the magical power types."
"Okay." Lyze said as he began counting on his fingers. "There is the Destruction Type, Shifting Type, the Healing Type, the Search Type, the Mental Type, the Deception type, the Stealth Type, the Enchantment-Type, the Oracle Type which is the rarest, and greatest of all is the Hero Type."
"Now based off of what you know about your innate magical power, which type would you say it comes under?"
"Well, as far as I know, I can only use it to generate spiritual energy and channel it as fire. The fire burns both the material and the immaterial and I can interact with souls to some extent. So I'd say Destruction Type?"
"How simplistic of you." Nekros said as he shook his head. "But then again, I have to admit that you haven't had this power long. So I can't blame you for ignorance. But you are both right and wrong."
"How?...and don't you dare make a Chaos joke."
"Do I look like I'm here to make jokes?" Nekros's mouth hardened and Lyze felt silent, suddenly remembering how scary Nekros could be sometimes when he was teaching the boy something. It had been a long time since he'd seen his master serious. "Answer me."
"...No, you're not."
"Good. As for why, I'll tell you. What is it about a magical power that makes it a Hero Type?"
"...The innate power in question has to bear four or more qualities of the other types to be called Heroic....which means one of those types could be Destruction Type. And that's how it could be both...meaning my magical power is Hero Type?"
"Good deduction."
"But I've only learnt to kill and destroy things with it. I haven't seen any other way to use it."
"Because you haven't put your mind to it." Nekros sat back down and held out his hand. "Your dagger. And hold out your hand too."
Lyze complied and gave Geranos to his old Master while also holding out his hand. Nekros held the growth weapon up. The dagger became clothed in silver flames as it felt itself being picked up by somebody else. The Flame however did nothing to Nekros as he held the dagger up in front of Lyze's face.
"You see this?" Nekros asked. "You've been able to imbue weapons and your fists with the same Flame. And now this dagger is also connected to it as it has its own source of the Flame within. There is the Enchantment aspect of it. Now then." Nekros quickly slashed a line across Lyze's palm and the boy hissed as a very fine cut opened up along his calloused hand. He kept his hand steady though, even as blood began to seep out. Because Lyze had let go of his Goddess form, he was not automatically healing. "Now, close off your mind to all else and focus on all the spiritual energy the Flame collected inside you."
Lyze did that, even going as far as to shutting off his Chaos vision and he saw darkness as his mind began searching for the source of his innate power. It wasn't too hard to find. The wellspring of life force was located somewhere in his gut, under his thorax yet above his intestines. He reeled back a little at the intensity of the Flame now. It was still in the image of a burning star but was so bright and intense that even his mind's eye was overwhelmed by it.
"Good." Nekros said. "Now, let go of all your other magical powers. Kick them to the curb if must. Just toss them aside and focus all your willpower into the Flame. Let it be your only focus at the moment."
Lyze obeyed. For someone who had legendary skill at precise control of magic, it was quite easy to just block out every other magic he had and activate the Flame of Origin alone. But when the Flame realized that it had its host's undivided attention, it roared to life all of a sudden, spitting out thousands of miniature solar flares as Lyze felt a growing heat rise in the spiritual plane of his body. It then began to spill over into the physical plane as he felt his skin prickle with the heat.
"Open your Chaos Vision again." Nekros commanded
When Lyze regained vision, he could not help but gasp at what he saw. He was still shirtless because of how he exploded his clothes earlier, which was how he saw what he did. Right where his diaphragm would be, there was what looked to be a silver orb of glowing magical power, shining beneath his skin as it burned with spiritual energy. More than that, the silver energy began to spread from his chest and began lighting up all his veins and arteries around his torso area and travelling down his arms.
When it got to the site where Nekros had slashed his palm, the wound caught on silver fire before it closed up completely, leaving not even a scar behind. It was like the flame had zipped up the wound before it just disappeared.
"And this is the third type." Nekros said. "It will use soul energy that you collect from the things you kill to seal and heal wounds as well as regenerate them. The more you exercise this power, the more adept you will be at automatic healing. If ever you are cut off from your Chaos powers, or you find yourself in a situation where Chaotic Force is dangerous to use, you have this power as a back up."
"And what about the fourth type?" Lyze said.
"Search type." Nekros said as he drew Excalibur from Lyze's hip and held it up. "Now stop channelling Chaos magic to your eyes and instead, channel the Flame." Lyze did that, and a whole new world appeared in front of his eyes. All went dark but now he could see large wisps of spiritual energy floating around in the Holy Sword. Looking around, he noticed the same things located all around him, in the exact same places as the other adventurers were. All these wisps had different colours to them.
For instance, the one inside Ais was golden in colour, while the one in Riveria was a vibrant beautiful green. The one in Finn was that of a blood red type and the same with Gareth too. Theirs were far more intense in spiritual pressure than Riveria. Noir was more of a shade of pink, but it did not seem as fierce as the other two. The colour of his soul induced a relaxation. Bara's soul however was violent fiery orange, much like many other Amazons nearby.
But the ones he saw inside the Holy Sword were completely transparent...which reminded him of how Freya described him and the souls in his sword.
"Are these-"
"Souls? Yes. They are a food source for the Flame and so gives you the ability to see them in a way that Chaos can also do, but it is for one purpose alone. To determine which meal is more nutritious. And you can judge that by the spiritual pressure that the souls exclude."
"...Amazing." Lyze said as he opened his vision with Chaos again. "Are there any more attributes?"
"The Shifting Type, which is the last one." Nekros said. "That one, you must figure out on your own. But be careful when working on it. There's no telling what accidents you might undertake when trying to work this into metals and natural resources. Now, to assess just how powerful you've become."
"What?"
"You think I would come to see you and not assess you physically?" Nekros stood up and smiled again. "I want to see the fruits of my handiwork. As you are now, hit me as hard as you can."
Lyze's skin began to crawl, as he remembered how brutal his master could be when it came to a fight. Fully healed and revitalized, he carefully stood up and clenched a fist. The Loki Familia took notice as Lyze's fist erupted into silver flame. Without hesitation he slammed a thunderous punch into Nekros's stomach. But the man stood firm, nothing much more than dust billowing out from his clothes as Lyze's punch landed.
The ground shook a little and the executives tightened their hands around their weapons. Nekros yawned in mockery and looked back down at his student. Nekros still had Excalibur in his hand, and noticing that, he tossed the Holy Sword aside and away from Lyze.
"Again." He commanded.
Lyze grit his teeth and punched even harder this time. This time he rained a combo down on his master's stomach and side. He jumped up and slammed his fist into Nekros's cheek. All he did was push the man's face to the side as he yawned again. The Loki Familia scrunched their brows in confusion at what was going on.
Lyze pulled back momentarily and tried to punch yet again but with much more force than before. Nekros however caught it in his larger hand and tightened his grip around the boy's fist, making Lyze's jaw tighten in pain.
"Okay, my turn." Nekros said before he pulled up. Lyze's body was flipped in the air, and an uppercut buried itself in Lyze's stomach, knocking the wind out of him and knocking him out of the new state that the Flame had given him. A shockwave exploded from the impact and Lyze's body went shooting up the cliff.
The boy's body dug through rock and dirt as his body finally sailed over the top and he went flying through the air. Trying to activate his flight magic, he tried to right himself in the air, but a grip on the hair of the back of his head swung him around back to ground. Lyze's body impacted the floor, creating a crater as he bounced. Lyze rolled into a crouch as he tried to force air back into his lungs, watching Nekros float down towards him.
"You will show me all that you have learnt." Nekros said. "Depending on that, I will decide whether I leave you with your Familia at the end of this Floor...or I just end it all by finishing you off here and now, and save us both from this cycle."
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